Readers sound off on dementia, stadium prices and Condi Rice

Manhattan: As caregivers for loved ones navigating Alzheimer’s disease, volunteer representatives for the Alzheimer’s Association in the 12th congressional district are grateful to Rep. Carolyn Maloney for her advocacy during her tenure. We hope that Rep. Jerry Nadler, who assumes leadership in the district in January, will follow the progressive precedent of Maloney.

She cosponsored vital bills in Congress, namely the Alzheimer Caregiver Support Act and the Comprehensive Care for Alzheimer’s Act, allowing the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation to test a dementia care management model. Notably, Maloney and her staffers spent time with her constituents, listening to our stories of the terrible toll that Alzheimer’s disease has taken upon our loved ones and the financial and emotional hardship that families suffer. Caregivers are at sea and struggling — Medicare and Medicaid do not cover the crippling cost of care for side effects that make homecare impossible: psychosis, wandering, aggression and immobility. The average assisted living facility can cost well more than $10,000 a month, far beyond the means of most families to afford (plus an aging population of more single adults without children or relatives to help).

We are encouraged that in 2020, Rep. Nadler helped advance the Promoting Alzheimer’s Awareness to Prevent Elder Abuse Act through the Judiciary Committee. A decade earlier, Nadler voted in favor of the National Alzheimer’s Project Act, the basis for all the advances made since then in Alzheimer’s research and policy. We are grateful, but there’s more dialogue to be had — and we hope to connect with Rep. Nadler and his staff to discuss the 410,000 New Yorkers with Alzheimer’s disease and its devastating effect on families, partners and the community. Kara Manning

North Massapequa, L.I.: Talk about chutzpah — when Twitter was censoring and denying content, everything was fine. Now some of the same elites are censored and the world is coming to an end. What goes around comes around. Steven Malichek

Huntington, L.I.: I was looking over the football bowl selections and wondering why the Culinary Institute and Mrs. Skinner’s Secretarial School were left out. Leonard Stevenson

Forest Hills: I don’t care how the Nets are doing, about their winning streak or how Kyrie Irving is meshing with Kevin Durant. With the increased rise in antisemitism, letting Irving’s bigotry go forgotten just enables this, as if it’s a one-shot deal and it doesn’t matter. I don’t care about him and his totally false sense of remorse and contrition. His dismissive apology does nothing to un-poison the well of the young people who look up to him. The visual matters. So once again, I invite him to go to Dachau and Auschwitz with survivors. Have those images be the story and the impact. To me, he is beyond redemption. Maybe others might be affected by those visuals. Who knows? Maybe in a season of light, some truth can be shed on repairing the damage Kyrie has done — and take Kanye West with him. Stew Frimer

Hillsdale, N.J.: I agree with Voicer Ralph Canzone about paying for the multimillionaire players’ salaries that keep parents from bringing their children to Yankees and Mets baseball games because they can’t afford the many hundreds of dollars it costs to see a game. Corporations can afford to buy blocks of tickets at any price because they use the high cost as tax deductions for entertaining clients and customers. It would be nice if the multimillion-dollar players would donate one or several million dollars to a Yankees/Mets ticket fund that could possibly reduce general admission ticket prices down to about $35 each so the little fan can bring his family to see a game. The players could use one or more million-dollar donations as their own income tax deduction, a win/win situation. There are easily 20-30 players who have multimillion-dollar salaries with both the Yankees and Mets. George A. Kritzler

Long Branch, N.J.: To Voicer Tanya Cabrera: I couldn’t agree more with your comments regarding young males wearing their pants below their waists. I wish there was a local ordinance against it. This appears to be a thing with young Black males, but young males including whites are also wearing pants with the crotch at the knees. Who’s making this junk that passes for pants and why are our young men so gullible as they continue to buy and wear them? I’m certain the girls will tell you, if you ask, that wearing pants in that manner is not sexy. It’s actually stupid. Lenzy Kelley

Hempstead, L.I.: To Voicer JoAnn Lee Frank: I saw your letter and was reminded of a conversation I had with a woman in Florida who told me she was visiting relatives in Haiti when there was an earthquake. She told me that the U.S. government sent the Army to rescue her in Haiti. They went door to door, knocking until they rescued her. I couldn’t believe it as she told the story. “That,” she said, “is why it’s good to be an American.” Happy Chanukah, merry Christmas and happy Kwanzaa to the Voicers. Leslie Feldman

Astoria: Just when one thinks things cannot get more absurd, bizarre, pathetic and/or satirical, Donald Trump, with his NFT digital trading cards, displays new levels of schlock and awe! Karen N. Pearlman

Massapequa Park, L.I.: So, finally, Trump is going to have to face the consequences! Your ego is not your amigo, chump. You should spend the rest of your life in prison. The crimes that you have committed over your lifetime have finally caught up with you. Frank Mullahey

Brattleboro, Vt.: Will somebody please enlist Condoleezza Rice to run for president? She was U.S. secretary of state, then national security advisor under George W. Bush and the first woman of color in both positions. She has taught political science and international business at Stanford University and is now director of the Hoover Institution as well as part-owner of the Denver Broncos. Read her article “Promoting the national interest” published in Foreign Affairs in 2000. Will somebody please convince her to run on the Republican ticket for president? Peter Van der Does

Arcadia, Calif.: It’s sad to see that Billy Joel canceled his Monday night concert at the Garden due to illness. While I wish him a speedy recovery, rescheduling the concert for June 2 with no offer of a refund is total b.s. My wife and I traveled from California to NYC for the show and we are not sure if we can come back in June. In fact, they tell us the rescheduled date may also be nixed if there is hockey playoff action at MSG — so unfair to fans paying hundreds of dollars for tickets. The Piano Man hit a sour note on this one. Al J. Stewart

Manhattan: Seems to me that Mayor Adams has more friends who are convicted felons than honest members of society. Take convicted felon Bishop Lamor Whitehead, just arrested again for defrauding one of his own parishioners (“Feds bust ‘Bling bishop’ of B’klyn,” Dec. 20) . I wonder what this jerk and the mayor talk about during their friendly gab sessions, how to fleece the gullible? This mayor is a reflection of the friends he keeps. Sad for New Yorkers. Patricia Clark

Valley Stream, L.I.: The nurses want a raise and it’s a shame they have to almost go on strike for it. I recently had an occasion to spend 24 hours in a hospital emergency area — on a weekend, yet — and I consider myself lucky to leave with the care that I received. I was actually amazed at how crowded the ER was and how active the nurses and doctors were for the entire time I was there. They went nonstop, yet I don’t think they missed anyone’s attention. I could see on their faces how tired they looked, yet sometimes managed smiles. I know I couldn’t do it. God bless our nurses and doctors and all the people cleaning in and around the hospitals. Give them a raise or some kind of extra combat pay! John Esposito